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Anyone try instructing???

12-11-2007, 07:39 PM

I went out today handing out my business cards as you all advised me to do at every business in town and had some great reponses from people! I was thinking..... There has to be a market to teach that person who went to TSC and bought a 115V wire feed and can't figure out how to lay a good bead. I think I could put an ad in the paper for 1on1 basic welding instruction for that weekend tinkerer???? Anyone tried it or have any thoughts?? I have taught several people how to weld and they all turned out to get real good at it. I believe I could teach anyone to properly set up a machine and lay nice beads. I would even give some quick classroom on how the weld process works. Nothing crazy or extensive just a intro to teach them to do it. What y'all think???
Shane

The only problem with your proposal is that; if you charge people for instruction you have just created a liability for yourself. Regardless of how well you instruct others, doesn't compare to a courtroom chair. While your student set off in the sunset to begin his welding career he came a cross an opportunity to fab some strong pipe because he was giving the GC a real good price. After about 7 months under load the welds failed injuring one occupant and causing more than 50K in structural damages. And your student says to the investigator "well that is how I was thought" Wam--Ohhhh..

Comment

Learned recognized skills can not fall back on the instructor. If that were the case, we could all sue our driving instructors should we ever get a ticket or have an accident. Also, lets sue swimming instructors on behalf of our drowned love ones . . . .

What you teach and how the student applies are two entirely different things . . .

Now I will agree liability would apply should your employee do something that caused injury. But they are not suing you because you trained him improperly, only that he is an extension of your company and regardless of why he screwed up, you are responsible.

Comment

Learned recognized skills can not fall back on the instructor. If that were the case, we could all sue our driving instructors should we ever get a ticket or have an accident. Also, lets sue swimming instructors on behalf of our drowned love ones . . . .

What you teach and how the student applies are two entirely different things . . .

Now I will agree liability would apply should your employee do something that caused injury. But they are not suing you because you trained him improperly, only that he is an extension of your company and regardless of why he screwed up, you are responsible.

Wacko Welder . . . .

Hey there,

Not to stir the pot but this is not a matter of if you agree, disagree or stand indifferent but rather a matter of fact. I'm not to sure what you mean by "Learned recognized skills" to the layman I guess a " Learned recognized skill" would be learning through recognition such as a baby learns to talk, walk and do things as others do through seeing them "recognition". But where I come from it's a vocational skill and/or trade. Swimming and the like carries an inherent risk, however, if negligence in instruction can be shown, yes the swimming instructor can be liable especially should said student apply those tought skills for hire causing harm to a 3rd party. Remeber it's not the student that will sue! A third party will claim harm to any entity directly and even indirectly to establish negligence. Hence, should poor instruction be utilized it would, will and can be used. This is regardless of the students intent!

Comment

i thought about doing some thing simpler once . but more along the lines of welder use and the proper choice for the beginner. as many thinking they might like to get a welder don't know much about them and as seen many times on here the question of "what welder should i get ??" comes up often. i was thinking more of a short class on the different types of welder, what they can and cant do, how easy or hard they are to learn. stuff like that to give the new guy a better idea of what is out there and what they can do .having a plasma cutter, a MIG, TIG, and stick welding option on hand to demonstrate the processes, show difficulty, and give a basic idea of the learning curve. also explain the extra needed safety gear to get them started off right, as apposed to what they see on OCC or other shows like it. proper safety gear and a better idea of the best welder for the new hobby guy/gal .

being as you would not so much be teaching as showing the options, liability should be lower. keeping in mind you better have good insurance if some one should get hurt wile in your shop., but after that you should be in the clear.

just some thing to think about when deciding what to teach or offer at your weekend play date.

thanks for the help
......or..........
hope i helped
sigpic feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.james@newyorkmetalart.comsummer is here, plant a tree. if you don't have space or time to plant one sponsor some one else to plant one for you. a tree is an investment in our planet, help it out.
JAMES

Comment

Teaching for pay is usually regulated so you might want to check to see what, if any, hoops you need to jump through.

Adult ed schools and community colleges usually offer "special interest" classes like welding, beginning guitar, or golf. You might check them out to see if they have any interest in offering a class, what's required, how much they pay, etc.

tacmig,

I don't necessarily disagree with you about how sue-happy people have become. But I think you missed an important link in your chain of causation.

If you're talking about structural failure, the real cause would not be the teaching you received. It would be the weld not being up to code specs. Since you need to be certified to do that kind of work, I don't think most jurors would believe that you can acquire that skill level in an "intro to welding" class.

So I'd be more worried about the "dumb" accidents which can be traced directly back to instruction. Like improper safety procedures. Or whether you can weld aluminum with steel. Or whether you can fix your backhoe bucket with your 110 mig...

Comment

Teaching for pay is usually regulated so you might want to check to see what, if any, hoops you need to jump through.

Adult ed schools and community colleges usually offer "special interest" classes like welding, beginning guitar, or golf. You might check them out to see if they have any interest in offering a class, what's required, how much they pay, etc.

tacmig,

I don't necessarily disagree with you about how sue-happy people have become. But I think you missed an important link in your chain of causation.

If you're talking about structural failure, the real cause would not be the teaching you received. It would be the weld not being up to code specs. Since you need to be certified to do that kind of work, I don't think most jurors would believe that you can acquire that skill level in an "intro to welding" class.

So I'd be more worried about the "dumb" accidents which can be traced directly back to instruction. Like improper safety procedures. Or whether you can weld aluminum with steel. Or whether you can fix your backhoe bucket with your 110 mig...

It's always sad when we have to think of liability and if we might lose our house because some low life attorney dreams deep pocket every night. My point is that good intent and faith can move mountains, but an attorney can ruin your dreams. Around here on the left coast we try to reduce our liability and in fact our insurance specifies specific exclusions to reduce there liability as well. Attorney's go after everyone hoping to acquire a settlement and if you don't they will drag you to financial ruin. You may win in the long run but the cost of winning is a lot more expensive than the cost of settling and this is why large companies have folded to these tactics. It's disgraceful, immoral and a "legal crime" but it's happening and until we all wake up, it's legal. Once an attorney does his/her "discovery" and finds that you have insurance, assets with equity and you had something to do with the incident directly or indirectly, YOUR TOAST. So I am fast to advise my colleagues to avoid this nightmare at any cost regardless of the good intentions they have.

Comment

Not to stir the pot but this is not a matter of if you agree, disagree or stand indifferent but rather a matter of fact. I'm not to sure what you mean by "Learned recognized skills" to the layman I guess a " Learned recognized skill" would be learning through recognition such as a baby learns to talk, walk and do things as others do through seeing them "recognition". But where I come from it's a vocational skill and/or trade. Swimming and the like carries an inherent risk, however, if negligence in instruction can be shown, yes the swimming instructor can be liable especially should said student apply those tought skills for hire causing harm to a 3rd party. Remeber it's not the student that will sue! A third party will claim harm to any entity directly and even indirectly to establish negligence. Hence, should poor instruction be utilized it would, will and can be used. This is regardless of the students intent!

O.K. that's 4 cents now!

TacMig

Must take you hours to get out of your driveway . . . I thought I was the cautious type . . .

My use of "Recognized skill" would be one that the average person would recognize as a skill ie . . carpentry, brick mason. Now on the other hand if you were operating a bomb school teaching classes that were highly specialized and most of your curriculum were based on your "learned" experience, you may have a problem. But then your student would not be around to tell them you were the idiot that instructed him. Now you are home free. On the other hand I doubt seriously you can find ONE SINGLE case where a welding instructor was sued due to poor quality welds made by one of his students.

Also, I have included the link to an excellent spell checker you may find useful . . .

Comment

My apology to Tacmig . . . I had not noticed you were from southern California . . . I lived there for 6 years . . . You guys will sue if your bathwater is not the temperature you "feel" it should be . . .

Comment

Another thing I learned today from my brother-in-law who is still in school and goes to the vocational school I went to 15 years ago told me that they discontinued the welding class there 2 years ago. This is sad because they also did a lot with adult education in that field. So what is a person to do if they want to learn about the welding process and does not want to spend the time or $$ to go to a community college for a semester. You mention the word college to some people and they freak out and want nothing to do with it. I'm not saying these people are not intelligent, but we all know someone like that. I have good backround and I just think that your neighbor might want to learn to weld that wagon back together but everytime he tries he blows a hole in it or it just breaks off. We have all been there and or know someone who has. Justs saddens me to see a good program at county vocational school let welding go. It's a great skill to have I just see it as well as many skilled trades getting tossed aside.

Comment

My apology to Tacmig . . . I had not noticed you were from southern California . . . I lived there for 6 years . . . You guys will sue if your bathwater is not the temperature you "feel" it should be . . .

Again my apology . . .

First, be careful you said "you guys" implying me. I've never sued anybody in my life although I probably should have on a few occasions. Second, my spelling? I have never used a spell checker and consider my spelling very good along with my choice of words (vocabulary) and structure. For example; when you say "my apology to Tacmig" implies you are addressing a group instead of directing your intent to your subject (incorrect structure for letter form). Correct structure is: My apology TacMig. I could go on here but it's not in the best interest of this forum nor do I engage anyone on a personal level. Hence, I would ask you to consider doing the same. My original post was to simply make the thread author aware of additional elements in which he/she may want to consider prior to choosing a direction in which to go. After all, that's what this forum is all about. Challenging others opinions and commenting on their spelling is not helpful and does not help the thread author.